Holmstrom key to Wings’ success
Here is a collection of articles I have found about Tomas Holmstrom (aka Homer).
The Hockey News recently wrote about Holmstrom being the biggest bargain in the NHL.
“When I hear people talk, they say the best people in front of the net are Ryan Smyth and Tomas Holmstrom,” Holland says. “The past two years, Tomas has really taken his game to the next level. We all thought coming into the new NHL with the new set of rules, the game was geared toward skaters and Tomas isn’t a skater. It is probably one of the weaker parts of his game, but he has really thrived.
He gets to the front of the net and has great hands. I think he is a better scorer than people give him credit for.”
The fact is life got significantly easier for Holmstrom when the NHL decided, after the lockout, to reduce obstruction. It meant he would no longer take a pounding at the front of the net, absorbing cross-check after cross-check in the back and kidneys.
“He was going to go there no matter what the rules are,” Holland says. “He probably doesn’t have quite as many bumps and bruises now as he did a few years ago, but that’s the beauty about Tomas; no matter how tought it is, he’s going there.”
Bruce MacLeod talked about Homer’s importance to the team and the series when he was still out with the eye injury.
When Mike Babcock was introducing a visitor around the Detroit Red Wings’ locker room after a preseason game last October, he came across Tomas Holmstrom. The coach smiled and said, “This is Tomas Holmstrom, the best power-play man in the National Hockey League.”
Babcock would surely like to introduce Holmstrom to the San Jose Sharks right about now.
Homer was pleased to be back on the ice after missing three games due to his eye injury. He made a big impact by scoring the Wings’ first goal in Game #4 in his typical spot at the top of the crease. Due to the injury, he’ll be wearing a visor for the rest of the playoffs.
Holmstrom had a team-high four hits while playing 16:21 and being his usual forceful self around the net.
Interestingly, he wasn’t available to start the power play in overtime because of a broken skate blade.
“It was unfortunate he broke his blade,” Babcock said. “You know, I thought, here we go, we have a power play in overtime and we got no Homer because he broke his blade. But that’s the way things go.” …
“Just his puck-possession skills down low and the offensive zone, and the retrieval skills and the play off the wall,” Babcock said. “His ability to get the puck back gives you two chances instead of one chance, and we feel we’ve been one-and-out on the power play. And the last part of the last game (Game 3), there was no keeping it going down low. He has that ability, and with bigger bodies, ideally we can do that.”
The Toronto Star just wrote a brief article about Homer’s place on the squad:
The crowd gathered around Wings forward Tomas Holmstrom, his left eye is still bloody, his left pupil still dilated from a stick injury suffered against Calgary.
“How’s your eye?” a reporter asked.
“Where are you?” joked Holmstrom, feigning blindness and getting a few yuks.
With one of their best players back in the lineup, having scored a huge goal in Game 3, the Wings are a loose and confident bunch. They have defied logic, heading into Game 5 tonight with the series tied at two games apiece despite having been massively outplayed.
…
“I really felt he gave us a boost, a little shot of adrenaline,” Dan Cleary said of Holmstrom. “He’s got that personality and that attitude. He does a lot for us.
“He definitely brings that power play presence that we’ve been missing.”
My only problem with this article: massively outplayed? The Wings have not been massively outplayed. Yes, their two wins have been after they were down by two goals, but both teams have dominated a portion of every game. I could see an argument if you felt the Sharks were a better team, but they have not massively outplayed the Wings in this series.
Sports Illustrated mentioned Homer’s superstition regarding his three gray t-shirts.
“I have these three t-shirts,” says the 34-year-old career Wing. “They’re all gray, all the same, but it’s important that I not mix them up. I wear one before warmups, I switch to another before I go out for warmups, and then there’s one I wear during games.” Holmstrom, who was nursing an eye injury in Detroit’s current series with the Sharks, started the practice last season, but won’t say why. “I don’t want to talk about it,” he says. “People will think I’m crazy.”
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One Response to “Holmstrom key to Wings’ success”
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May 5th, 2007 at 9:14 am
““I don’t want to talk about,†he says. “People will think I’m crazy.—
That ship has sailed, my friend.